Once again, there is PLENTY of money in the postal system.  6-10 cent of each first class mail stamp goes to "postal security" which includes opening mail, scanning mail, Operation Eagle Eye and a hundreds of millions of dollar system to track all mail "metadata", tracking who sends what to whom, based on OCR scanning of address to/from pair combinations, subscriptions, tracking online purchases, etc.

A bottom-line thought about this...

If the USPS were profitable, they would have no problems like this. Look at how much it costs to mail a 2-day letter UPS style. Way more than a USPS 44 cent letter that usually takes only 2 days.

What is the real cost of sending a letter by either company? Nobody really knows, because of laws that don't let UPS send letters by cheap mail, and other laws that regulate how much the USPS is subsidized by Government.

What we can see is that the USPS can't make it on 44 cents a letter. So, no matter how you look at it, the price has to go UP, if it is UPS or USPS. (Notice how the USPS tries to hide "up" with that middle "S" while UPS has it right out in the open? That's Government for you.)

Or can somebody think of a better way? Like securing the Internet so that Government can't interfere with it? Like Internet by non-centralized radio? Or maybe Internet over the power grid? Or by State Postal Services that are intra-state only so that Fed Gov Postal Regs don't apply, any only use USPS or UPS for bulk mail to other intra-state postal systems?

It's time to get the Federal Government out of our mail.

If they think their volume is dropping now, wait til they cut to 3 days per week delivery.  If you think that will be the end of the USPS, think again.  The Feds will be waiting and ready with another bailout.  Can't have 10's of thousands of union USPS workers hit the unemployment line.  The government will think of something to keep the USPS afloat.  Service will errode, but their doors will remain open somehow as the government fights the free markets (FedEx and UPS) taking any market share from a faltering USPS. 

How about zero days per week! The Constitution says that

"Congress shall have the power ... To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;"

It doesn't say that Congress must establish or maintain either Post Offices or Post Roads, and I haven't seen any Post Roads around in my lifetime, so why not just let the Post Office go the way of the Post Roads! Fed Ex, UPS et al would do a much better job anyway.